O2/N2 is measured in the Cape Grim Air Archive (CGAA), a suite of tanks filled with background air at Cape Grim, Tasmania (40.7°S, 144.8°E) between April 1978 and January 1997. Derived trends are compared with published O2/N2 records and assessed against limits on interannual variability of net terrestrial exchanges imposed by trends of δ13C in CO2. Two old samples from 1978 and 1987 and eight from 1996/97 survive critical selection criteria and give a mean 19-year trend in δ(O2/N2) of -16.7 ± 0.5 per meg yr-1, implying net storage of +2.3 ± 0.7 GtC (1015 g carbon) yr-1 of fossil fuel CO2 in the oceans and +0.2 ± 0.9 GtC yr-1 in the terrestrial biosphere. The uptake terms are consistent for both O2/N2 and δ13C tracers if the mean 13C isotopic disequilibrium flux, combining terrestrial and oceanic contributions, is 93 ± 15 GtC ‰ yr-1. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Geology
Research Field:	Mineralogy and crystallography
Objective Division:	Environmental Management
Objective Group:	Air quality, atmosphere and weather
Objective Field:	Weather
UTAS Author:	Langenfelds, RL (Mr Raymond Leonard Langenfelds)
UTAS Author:	Budd, WF (Professor William Budd)
ID Code:	17381
Year Published:	1999
Web of Science® Times Cited:	42
Deposited By:	IASOS
Deposited On:	1999-08-01
Last Modified:	2000-05-20
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